Is this your child? Staying home on Friday?

[NetballMumGrrr]

Article about how more children are staying home on a Friday as their parents are at home?

Link to BBC News

I’m assuming it’s vulnerable children. Not sure why people are not valuing education more or AIBU?

The cynical part of me sees this report as a way to point fingers of blame at a) parents, b) teachers and c) children. Parents for working at home when so many high-powered people want us back in offices to spend money in their shops etc, teachers because of the strikes (which I fully support btw) and children for feeling burnt out or wanting to be at home. I realise my view is probably simplistic but I'm interested in why exactly this 'news' is being trotted out.

My DS was out of education for a while due to unmet SEN. It was ME fighting for the support to get him back in to school.

I think this is such a good point, parents constantly have to fight for their children to have their needs met at school and deal with the high levels of anxiety in their kids when that support isn’t forthcoming. So yes absence does increase because there’s a limit to how far you can continue to put a child into a place that is stressful and anxiety provoking for them, with little to no support. If schools want kids to attend they need to make it possible for them to do so safely.

Most posters need to replace the word school with the word government.

Schools would love to support all children and meet their needs but without funding this is impossible.

What is wrong with some people?

Yes, raise it. The incident last week should not have occurred, and reasonable adjustments need to be put in place for people with protected characteristics such as the disabilities your daughter has.

oops sorry wrong thread!

There's definitely an increase in children being off on a Friday. I can almost guarantee at least four in my class who won't be in 'because it's Friday' and similarly on a Monday! Makes me sad for these children.

This.

I think some (many?) parents don't understand how teaching works these days. It's not like when we went to school - time's have changed! And why would parents understand the changes? I didn't as a parent, but I do now I'm a teacher (2nd career).

I'm in primary, and if a child is frequently absent they will have gaps in their learning. So, for example, in teaching fractions in year 5, which can take a few weeks, they will have gaps if they are off. We don't have time to go back over it because we are trying to cram in so much stuff these days, as we need to deliver a full and rounded curriculum as requested by Govt. If your child is not in, then they will miss out that day's learning. We go over fractions again in yr6 but it's a recap to further embed learning and it's a much shorter session. I've got a child who missed it in yr5 because they were ill and then yr6 due to parents deciding a 2 week holiday was more important. Holiday was avoidable, illness was not. That child now is not on a par with their peers and finds maths tough as it is; they're very anxious about assessments because there's a whole bunch of questions they don't know how to answer.

What we have seen due to covid is that there are huge gaps for many kids. To use the analogy of building a house, if they don't have strong foundations, there'll be cracks and damage as the house is built.

If your child is ill (and I include mental health in that), then that can't be avoided. But if it's due to choice, then I can't understand why you would actively choose to continue to cause further damage to your child's (academic) education and effectively continue to weaken the foundations of your 'house'. As teacher's we're constantly told that we have loads of holiday (13 weeks) so it's not like there isn't time to cherish with family members and build memories and do the other side of education that isn't academic.

As for strikes, then no teaching is taking place, your child is not missing out in the same way, with gaps in their education, whilst their peers do not.

As for strikes, then no teaching is taking place, your child is not missing out in the same way, with gaps in their education, whilst their peers do not.

They may not be missing any teaching but they are missing routine, structure and predictability that supports building good habits around work and focus. They are missing the reinforcement of the process of daily study. It does impact children, their capacity for learning and motivation to learn when schools are so disrupted.

It’s very hard to persuade a child that they need to go to school daily when they’ve hardly had a full week at school since August, which is the case for mine between holidays, inset days and strike days. strike days seem to be set awkwardly too - mine were back 1 day after the Christmas break and were off for a strike day, the inconsistency is very tricky to manage. And in Scotland the strikes are wholly about salary, I know that’s not the case elsewhere but it is here. So their education is being disrupted because the best paid teachers in the uk want more money.

I can teach my kids fractions, I also pay a private tutor to try and fill the gaps left by Covid, so it’s not like I lack commitment to their education. I’m just not buying the whole “one day missed compromises your child’s life chances” thing.

As teacher's we're constantly told that we have loads of holiday (13 weeks) so it's not like there isn't time to cherish with family members and build memories and do the other side of education that isn't academic. you’re forgetting parents don’t get 13 weeks off, and that they can afford holidays at peak season, or that thats when they need to go. Why on Earth don’t you just give the child catch-up work if they miss a week? Surely if this IS an ongoing problem you could have text books available? How much bigger is the curriculum really than 30 years ago because people aren’t hitting university with a better understanding of maths etc, rather the opposite?

@fridaytwattery . But that's not the case with the strikes. Some children are missing out on education, others are not. In year groups in the same school, some classes will be in learning and some classes at home because their teacher is on strike. And teachers aren't meant to catch the children up on what they miss... as someone said above, the whole purpose of the strikes is to disrupt children's education. So they're meant to fall behind. I get that, it's the only way teachers will get their message across.

But as a parent, I'm not going to let my child's education be disrupted. So I'll do what any responsible parent would do and cover the material missed with my DC myself. That means reading up on what the class should be covering and working out where the gaps in my child's knowledge are. I take primary responsibility for my child's education and knowing what they should be learning (admittedly easier at primary than secondary level).

However, if I can do this for strikes, then I can also do this to cover other days off for my child. I did it when my child was off with chicken pox... when they were feeling better, we covered the material that their class was covering in school in a couple of hours. So the argument that days off are necessarily going to impact children's education depends mostly on how engaged the parents are.

Holidays in peak school holiday times are more expensive for everyone, not just parents.
Nobody needs to go on holiday.
setting a week’s worth of work for one member of the class is a big task that does have time allocated for.
Text books cost money schools do not have. And as teachers do not teach from a text book, the work wouldn't be what the other students completed by being in the lesson.
Massive changes were made to the curriculum since 30 years ago. Gove in particular went content crazy. It is significantly bigger than when you were last in a school.

I think it’s fine tbh. Dh and I only work Mon-thurs so we have Fridays off. Ds isn’t school age yet but if we wanted to go somewhere it would make sense to go Fri-Sunday.

As it is, we live in and country where school is only 8am-11.45am, so everyone does go away Friday lunchtime straight after. If they can all finish every day by lunchtime their whole school life and still manage to be qualified by the end of school, I’m not sure tbh why the uk school day is so long. Seems like a lot of wasted time happening, and no time to actually enjoy life day to day.

This is bonkers. But could also be considered another justification for a four day week.

Do schools actually do much ‘education’ in the afternoons anyway? Most people’s we know is lunch and then it is art or sports, which presumably you can just do at home.
I would rather they did 4 day week compulsory, then offered Friday ‘sport or activity days’ for anyone who wanted to go in, but it’s optional.

I disagree with this idea kids were better qualified. Far more left school functionally illiterate historically and many subjects cover way more now, if you get a top grade now in Maths GCSE you have covered a lot.

Kids are far better taught now, teachers can't just teach to the middle.

That would be unfair. You can't provide an optional club for some at taxpayers' expense!

Also not sure which schools just do 'art or sport' in the afternoons, all my kids did a full curriculum.

@carriedout - it would cost the same as today. 5 days teaching. But the Friday, anyone who chooses to not send wouldn’t get told off for it. So you could
opt to send your child 3 Fridays a month for sports and arts, and 1 Friday do your own thing. Would be better as people choosing to go to other places ie museum, swim lido Friday, would make it less crowded on the weekends also.

Children missing random days really does have an effect on education - if child A missed the day you teach something new in maths, comes back one day later when the rest of the class has moved on to the next thing, applying that knowledge learnt yesterday, child A is adrift and not easily able to catch up. Yes the TA might be able to sit with them and go through it, but you might not have a TA, and the maths curriculum is so full there’s very little time to go back over things.

multiply that by two or three kids in a class of 30 who persistently miss odd days here and there and it’s madness, there’s kids missing bits of knowledge all over the place and no way to catch them up….

It may cost the same, but it is not an appropriate use of taxpayers' money. It would just be a hugely expensive optional social club, it makes no sense at all.

It would cost the same for lower return for the nation, how can that be justified?

@carriedout - I wouldn’t mind tbh. I would happily have a 4 day week so wouldn’t care if nothing on Fridays. But I understand some need it for various reasons and some children wouldn’t spend Fridays swimming at lake or out on bikes just at home so it’s fine they get it there.
I don’t use the nhs either, but still pay for it for others

All of our group reading and intervention takes place in the afternoon.

This is absolutely true. It's manageable when you miss the occasional child to illness but for a two week holiday or every Friday they will really suffer. There's no spare staff to leap into action for children who have missed bits. We're already stretched to the maximum.

You still benefit from the NHS. You live in a country where people are able to access healthcare meaning the workforce is healthier meaning our GDP is higher meaning you have the opportunity to be richer.

Those who pay for private education still benefit from an educated population.

Education of offenders benefits me despite me (hopefully) never having cause to even visit a prison.

Social improvements benefit all in society. Reducing education will not benefit society.

@Sherrystrull - intervention? Not all child gets that though surely? so most miss just reading which they can easily do anywhere else. Most could easily visit grandparents and read to granny 30 mins and not get behind